U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/787,094 describes a wide sheet of highly oriented ultra high molecular weight polyethylene comprising a plurality of strips of highly oriented ultra high molecular weight polyethylene partially overlapped or abutted longitudinally to define joints between adjoining strips wherein the thickness of the joint is less than about 80% of the thickness of the sum of the thicknesses of the adjoining strips that make up the joint. A continuous method for the production of such materials comprising subjecting longitudinally overlapping or abutted strips of these materials to temperatures below the melting point of the UHMWPE and pressures over 300 pli is also disclosed in this application.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/787,260 describes apparatus for the continuous fabrication of wide polymer sheet from a plurality of polymer strips of indeterminate length abutting or partially overlapped longitudinally to define joints between adjoining strips.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/881,863 describes a ballistic-resistant panel in which the entire panel or a strike-face portion thereof is formed of a plurality of sheets of high modulus high molecular weight polyethylene tape. The sheets of high modulus polyethylene tape can be in the form of cross-plied laminated layers of tape strips or a woven fabric of tape strips. The strips of UHMWPE tape include a width of at least one inch and a modulus of greater than 1400 grams per denier. The ballistic-resistant panel may include a backing layer of conventional high modulus fibers embedded in resin. A wide variety of adhesives were found acceptable for bonding the cross-plied layers of high modulus polyethylene tape together for forming the ballistic-resistant panels according to this disclosure.
While each of these pending applications describes highly useful materials and methods and apparatus for their fabrication, none describes a ballistic laminate fabricated from a wide sheet of highly oriented ultra high molecular weight polyethylene comprising a plurality of strips of highly oriented ultra high molecular weight polyethylene partially overlapped or abutted longitudinally to define joints between adjoining strips wherein the thickness of the joint is less than about 80% of the thickness of the sum of the thicknesses of the adjoining strips that make up the joint.
Accordingly, there remains an opportunity to provide a ballistic laminate fabricated from the wide sheet product described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/787,094.